<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>How Bucky Broke the Code, and Didn't Even Care by mirinotginger</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30130398">How Bucky Broke the Code, and Didn't Even Care</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirinotginger/pseuds/mirinotginger'>mirinotginger</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Avengers Tower, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Mad Scientists, Meet-Cute, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Sexting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:07:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,935</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30130398</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirinotginger/pseuds/mirinotginger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky is fascinated by this gorgeous woman he meets one day, but realizes she's off limits because she's Thor's Shield Sister. Darcy's relentless cheeriness and amazing texting skills quickly make Bucky decide he doesn't care about anything but getting to know her. Also featuring: mad scientists, a kidnapping, tower gardens, sexting, and super supportive chosen family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>138</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 1</p><p>“You’re moving where?” Darcy stared at her boss, distantly realizing that question came out much more like a shriek than she intended. <br/>“New York City.” Jane leveled an exasperated look in the direction of her friend and lab assistant.<br/>“You always said you weren’t interested in moving to New York. That there is way too much light pollution and it would be impossible to do your work, and that there are too many people. And now you’re just up and moving?!”<br/>“Tony Stark has been trying to get me to work for SI for years. He makes me an offer every six months or so, and this most recent one I just can’t pass up. Brand new lab space, AI assistance with the math and the data, nearly unlimited funding for research trips including the use of one of SI’s private jets, and an apartment in the tower. How am I supposed to say no to that?”<br/>“Well, that does sound pretty good and hard to pass up.” Darcy stepped closer to Jane and gave her a hug. “I am going to miss you though”<br/>“Why are you going to miss me? Do you not want to go?”<br/>“Wait, I’m invited?!”<br/>“Of course you are! I can’t move to NYC and continue my work without you! I told Tony that I needed to bring my research assistant and let's just say, we are both getting quite the raise!”<br/>This time, the hug was much more enthusiastic, nearly toppling both women over.<br/>“NYC, here we come!”</p><p>A very busy and hectic 3 weeks later, Darcy and Jane had managed to get Jane’s entire lab packed up and shipped to NYC, along with all of their (admittedly meager) personal belongings, and had presented themselves in the lobby of Stark Tower. After checking in with the security team, they were whisked off to an elevator that went up for a long time before opening into a hallway. To the left were a series of closed doors, but to the right, the hallway opened up in to a large room, so they headed that way. The room was a living room, surprisingly. It was beautiful, but understated. Full of comfortable furniture and tasteful decorations, but not fussy. There were plants scattered around, and on the other side, a door out to a balcony that contained even more plants. The living room flowed seamlessly into a dining room, with a wide archway separating the two, and through the dining room Darcy could catch a glimpse of a kitchen. It seemed like they were in someone’s home, but whose? Suddenly, the elevator dinged and they could hear the sound of someone running down the hallway.</p><p>“Jane! You’re finally here!” Jane was tackled by a blonde mountain, who immediately started twirling her around and kissing her. Darcy decided the wise thing to do would be to back up.</p><p>“Thor! You’re here! No one said anything!<br/>“I wanted it to be a surprise, my Jane. Are you surprised?”<br/>Jane’s answer was lost in the rather intense kissing that started, and Darcy suddenly found something very interesting that she needed to go do, maybe in that kitchen she had seen earlier. Thor could get, um, enthusiastic, and Darcy didn’t need to see that.</p><p>She walked into the kitchen and, not seeing any chairs or barstools, hopped up onto one of the counters. She opened her bag and pulled out her knitting, wondering if she could get the next pattern repeat done before Thor and Jane came up for air.</p><p>Several minutes later, a door at the far end of the kitchen opened, and a voice said “What are you doing here”? Darcy jumped, and looked up from her knitting in surprise. She saw the most stunning man she had ever seen. Tall, dark hair pulled back into a messy bun, piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a blue long sleeved henley and snug jeans, and Darcy tried to answer and found herself too busy staring to reply. He walked over to her, an amused look playing around his eyes.<br/>“I know everyone who comes into this kitchen, and I don’t know you. Are you lost?” That last question came out in a low, almost flirtatious tone. Darcy cleared her throat.<br/>“Um, hi. We just moved here. Well, not here to this kitchen, but here to this tower. I think? I’m unclear on the details. Maybe we are living someplace else. But my boss has a lab space in this tower, except I don’t know where it is yet. The elevator just brought us here, and then she got distracted and then I just came in here to wait.”<br/>“Well hi. Welcome to New York. Can’t say I’m sorry your boss got distracted. There’s something pretty distracting in this kitchen right now.” As he spoke, he was moving closer until he was standing directly in front of Darcy. Her legs involuntarily opened, a silent invitation for him to come even closer.<br/>“Yeah, so far, this tower is full of distractions”. Darcy stared at the man, lost in his eyes. It felt like all the air had gone out of the room.<br/>“Mmm. And what a pretty distraction it is.” With every word, the man seemed to get closer. Darcy thought with a small part of her brain, the tiny bit that wasn’t occupied with the urge to kiss this man like Thor and Jane were, that it probably wasn’t wise to kiss a stranger, but the rest of her brain was enthusiastically on board.  “Tell me, pretty distraction, tell me what you want”. <br/>“I want…” All the air seemed like it had left Darcy’s lungs. “I want…” The stranger's mouth was a breath away from Darcy’s own. “I want…”<br/>“Darcy!” Thor’s voice booming from the other room was an unwelcome surprise, and Darcy’s head jerked backwards, slamming into the cabinet behind her. <br/>“Darcy? You’re Thor’s Darcy?” The stranger looked at her. “You should lead with that next time. It would help prevent any more mistakes.” With that cryptic statement, he vanished out the same door he came in, leaving Darcy rubbing the back of her head in confusion and unfulfilled arousal.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Darcy adjusts to life in the tower, and has several run ins with the hot and cranky stranger. They also start texting!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 2<br/>
Before she knew it, Darcy and Jane were whisked off to their new lab space by a terrifyingly efficient Pepper Potts and an overly enthusiastic Thor. After a whirlwind tour, Pepper took them a few floors down to their apartments (plural! Darcy had her own place for the first time in her entire life!) and somehow the rest of the day was filled with unpacking and setting up and Darcy barely had time to breathe let alone think about the devastatingly attractive stranger she met in the kitchen.</p><p>Darcy settled into life in Stark tower quickly. She had a beautiful apartment on the 23rd floor. She discovered that two entire floors of the tower were devoted to retail and shopping, all for the convenience of the tower residents and workers. There was a coffee shop that made the best cappuccino Darcy had ever had, a grocery store that delivered her groceries to her apartment, and a really excellent deli. There was even a yarn store, and Darcy spent several pleasant hours browsing their selection, chatting with the proprietor, and choosing some yarn for a new project. Jane also kept her busy, relying on Darcy’s organizational skills to help get everything set up and running after their move. The first several weeks in their new home flew by, and one morning Darcy realized that she had lived in New York City for almost three weeks and hadn’t left the tower once.</p><p>“Jane! Jane! Jane!” Darcy knew better than to talk to her friend until Jane was looking at her and paying attention. She had had too many conversations in the past that Jane later had no recollection of, answering on autopilot while her brain was still busy with the problem of the day.<br/>
Jane slowly looked up from her screen, blinked twice, and focused on Darcy.<br/>
“Yes Darcy?”<br/>
“Jane. We have lived here for 19 days and haven’t been outside of the tower once!”<br/>
“Yes I know. Isn’t it great?”<br/>
“What? No it’s not great! It’s a Travesty!”<br/>
“A travesty?”<br/>
“No Jane a Travesty! You missed the capitol T and the exclamation point. I know you heard me say them.”<br/>
“ Oh sorry. Tell me Darcy, why is it a Travesty!?” Jane’s overly emphasized last word made Darcy choke back a giggle; she was determined to prove a point and laughing at Jane wouldn’t help.<br/>
“Jane. it’s been 19 days. Don’t you want to go explore? Take in the sights? Go do all of the touristy stuff before we get too jaded and don’t want to do it again? We’re in New York City! Center of all culture!”<br/>
“I don’t know how you can say that when you’ve been to London and Tokyo with me, and you did an entire study abroad in Morocco.”<br/>
“Fair point. I was exaggerating; thanks for the reminder. But in my defense, we don’t know what kind of culture is here since we haven’t gone out to experience it yet! Broadway! The MoMa! The Met! We can walk the Brooklyn Bridge and go to Coney Island and explore Central Park!”<br/>
“Darcy.” Jane sighed and turned so she was fully facing Dary. “I love your enthusiasm. But you know I don’t love big cities and crowds. It was really hard for me to move here and one of the draws of the tower is that I don’t have to leave if I’m not ready. Which I’m not. I’m sorry.”<br/>
“Oh Jane.” Darcy moved over to where her friend was sitting and flung her arms around her. Since she was standing and Jane was sitting, she kind of ended up giving Jane an aggressive hug around the head. “Don’t you ever apologize for that. Not ever. I got so excited about being here that I forgot you weren’t as excited. Here’s what we are going to do. We’ll have a list of things you might be interested in someday, and then I’ll scope them out and do some research and find out good times for you to go and make sure they are fun. Ok? And whenever you’re ready, I’ll be ready and we can go.”<br/>
“That’s a great plan Darcy. Thank you. Do you think you could let me stand up so I could hug you properly?”</p><p>Over the next week or so, Darcy got to work making a list of all of the things she wanted to do. She loved researching and making lists, and was delighted to come across several museums and sights that she had never heard of before. She also made a list of stores and places of interest to visit. Since Jane’s work schedule was so erratic, she was able to duck out for an hour or so almost every day at some point and began to explore the city she now called home. She spent several wonderful hours browsing in the fabric district, and brought home some delightful wools and linens for making some new clothes. She found yarn stores and cheese shops and used book stores and bakeries and found tiny farmers markets scattered around. She went to the Tenement museum and paid her respects to those who had gone before her in the fight for equality and safe working conditions. She spent an entire afternoon at the Museum of Natural History and left with so much still left to see. All in all, she kept herself very busy. One day, late in the morning, she decided to go pick up some cheese and fruit so she could make a fancy cheese plate for dinner. She walked the few blocks to the cheesemonger she had found, and upon walking in, found herself staring at a hauntingly familiar set of blue eyes, who stared back at her in shock.</p><p>“Well hello again”, she said, surprised, but happy to see the handsome stranger again.</p><p>“What are you doing here”? He did not seem pleased to see her.</p><p>“Um, buying cheese, I hope. Are you going to ask me that every time you see me?”</p><p>He didn’t answer, but turned back to the counter. Darcy was confused, but decided that he wasn’t worth her energy and she started browsing the cheese selection. She was trying to decide between a cow’s milk chevre or a fresh goat ricotta when she felt someone standing behind her.</p><p>“Look, next time, maybe tell someone who you are, so this mistake doesn’t happen again.” With that, he vanished out the door, leaving Darcy in stunned silence.</p><p> </p><p>The whole way back to the tower, she ranted to herself. What kind of jerk did he think he was? A mistake? She wasn’t a mistake. Giving him the time of day was clearly a mistake, but she certainly wasn’t. And how did her identity even matter? She managed to work off most of her mad by the time she got back, and she went to find Jane, hoping she could coax her friend out of the lab for a night of cheese and wine to get the last of her annoyance out. Jane, it appeared, had other plans.</p><p>“I’m sorry Darcy, but Thor asked me to come up and have dinner with him tonight. All of the rest of the Avengers are in town, and apparently they have big family dinners when they are all home. I know, I made the same face. Anyways, Thor really wanted me to come up. Apparently Steve and Bucky make the best lasagna anyone has ever had - I know, same face again! - and Thor is really excited to introduce me to the rest of his family. I wish I could join you though. Rain check?”</p><p>Darcy was left to her own devices. Eating cheese and drinking wine by herself didn’t sound fun anymore; it sounded like a great way to end up in a several days long funk and she was much too busy for that right now. She decided to head down to the coffee shop and then pick up something from the deli for dinner, and save the cheese for when Jane could join her. Walking into the coffee shop though, she received another unpleasant surprise. The handsome asshole was at the counter ordering a white chocolate mocha! How dare he have such good taste. That was Darcy’s second favorite drink!. He scowled at her. She pulled out a notebook, ripped off a small piece of paper, and scribbled her number. She marched over. </p><p>“I live here, and I come here all the time. If you don’t want to see me around, you can always text first. But don’t you dare scowl at me for having the audacity to exist in a public place.”</p><p>This time, Darcy left first, wanting to be the one to get the last word in. She went to the deli and ordered a Sandwich of Spite and Annoyance and settled in to watch Arrested Development for the seven hundred and fiftieth time. Watching that dysfunctional family always made her feel better. </p><p>Three days later, her phone beeped with a text message from an unfamiliar message. It read *coffee shop. 20 minutes* She stared at it, confused, for several minutes, before remembering the conversation in the coffee shop earlier in the week. She texted back *all clear. Enjoy!*, thought about it for a minute, and then added a kissing face emoji. She saved the number in her phone under Handsome Asshole, then returned back to what she was doing. A few days later, her phone beeped again. *Poke place. This afternoon at 2*. She replied with &lt;🍣&gt;, &lt;🍜&gt;, &lt;😀&gt;. This pattern continued; ever few days she would get a terse message with a location and a time, and she would respond with any applicable emojis she could find. Any messages she sent were never replied to, but they did show as read, so she assumed they were getting delivered. One day, her phone beeped while she was in the coffee shop, cleverly called Stark Brew and said *coffee shop, 5 minutes*. She replied *you’re gonna have to wait, i’m already here and there’s a line. Soz*</p><p>*Soz?*<br/>
*oh good, these are getting delivered. It means sorry.*<br/>
*how long is the line?*<br/>
*i’ve been here for a little more than 5 minutes, and there’s still a couple of people in front of me*<br/>
*Damn*<br/>
*look, you might as well come get in line. I promise I won’t make eye contact*</p><p>There was no reply, but a few minutes later, she saw him join the line. She made a point to not look at him, although the harder she concentrated on not looking, the more she wanted to look. When she got to the counter, she ordered her standard cappuccino, and then on a whim, ordered his white mocha. She pointed out who it was for, and then started hoping her drink would be done before he realized what she had done. The coffee gods were with her, and she hurried off with her cappuccino.  A few minutes later though, her phone beeped.</p><p>*Why?*<br/>
*Who doesn’t like free coffee?*<br/>
There was no response, but Darcy felt like she definitely won a point in whatever this game was they were playing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Texting continues. There is a garden in Avengers Tower. Emojis exist.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 3</p><p>About a week later, Darcy was having a Bad Day. Jane was frustrated about some of the data she had been getting and was snapping at everything Darcy said. Her computer had decided to act up and Darcy had had to spend valuable time troubleshooting instead of working. Her lunch exploded in the microwave so instead of delicious leftovers Darcy had Sad Almonds and Cheese Crackers of Despair. By the time she got home, she felt wound up and unsettled, and badly in need of a walk. The universe had other ideas however, and it was thundering and raining so hard the city was warning residents about flooding and monitoring the subway system. Darcy put on sneakers and pulled out her phone.</p><p>*look. I’m having a shit day and I need to move. I can’t go outside and I can’t handle the tower gym right now so I’ll be walking around the public areas for the next while. Idk where or how long*<br/>The response came promptly.<br/>*I’m sorry about your bad day. Do you know about the conservatory on the 42nd floor?*<br/>*no, no i do not. Can i go there?*<br/>*i don’t see why not. There’s nothing else on that floor so you should be able to find it pretty easily*<br/>*thanks dude. I’ll go check it out*<br/>*no worries. I was headed to the tower taco bar in a little bit, so really i told you for me*<br/>Darcy stared at her phone. Was that a joke? She sent back *&lt;😙&gt;* and headed to the elevator.</p><p>The conservatory was amazing. The elevator doors opened onto a small lobby with a shoe cleaning station and then double doors. On the other side of the doors was a lush jungle of a room. There were bushes and vines and flowers and little benches and fountains. The trail wandered through the garden and by the time Darcy had made three laps, she was feeling much more settled. On her fourth lap, she actually started looking around at the garden around her. There were beautiful vignettes all over. The gardens looked a little wild, like they had formed over years of neglect, but clearly were very well maintained. There was a fountain and then a little stream that followed the path for a ways before disappearing into a little thicket. There even looked like there was a gazebo, although Darcy couldn’t immediately tell how to get there. The air was warm and humid. The windows on this floor looked different than on the rest of the floors. Darcy was unsure what the difference was, but she assumed these windows let in more light. There were also clearly grow lights in the ceiling, but somehow the conservatory didn’t seem overly bright. If she wasn’t looking at the windows, it was hard to believe she was on the 42nd floor of a skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan. After Darcy had walked all of her jitteriness out, she took the time to sit and breathe for a little bit.</p><p>*thanks for telling me about this garden. It’s really lovely*<br/>*You’re welcome. I assume I’m going to have to start telling you when I’m going there as well?*<br/>*well, I think I’m just going to live here now so 🤷♀️ *<br/>*why do you use so many of those little pictures when you text*<br/>*they are emoji. And because 🤷♀️ accurately conveys what I’m trying to communicate. Why use a bunch of words when I have 🤷♀️ to say the same thing?*<br/>*emoji?*<br/>*it’s japanese. It’s 2020 dude, how have you not heard the word emoji??*<br/>The three little dots appeared and disappeared several times before *I spent a lot of time in places where there isn’t very much technology.*<br/>*that sounds terrible. I’m a slut for technology. It’s one of the best parts of living in the tower*<br/>*what are some of the other best parts?*<br/>*well, the coffee bar for one. The yarn store. Grocery delivery. Magic doors and elevators that just open when you walk up to them. I love that I don’t have to push any buttons. It makes me feel like a queen. Or Darth Vader*<br/>*That’s certainly a comparison. Do you go to the yarn store a lot?*<br/>*oh yeah. Probably way too much. I love to knit*<br/>*What are you working on right now?*<br/>Darcy pulled her partially completed sock out of her bag and snapped a quick photo.<br/>**<br/>*I remember my mom and my sister knitting socks like that.*<br/>*I love knitting socks. I always have one on me because they are small and easy to put in a bag. I also have a sweater in my apartment that I’m working on and a couple of small holiday gifts for my nieces and nephews.*<br/>Darcy found herself really enjoying the conversation, so it was a bit of a surprise when the responses stopped coming. She decided to just sit and enjoy the garden for a little while longer, but her peace was disturbed by the faint sound of the alarm that Jane had told her summoned the Avengers. Hopefully they were going to do something far away from NYC, Darcy thought to herself, but decided to head down to her apartment anyways. About 45 minutes after she got back, her phone beeped once more.<br/>*I’ll be out of town for a while. Don’t worry about running into me. I’ll let you know when I get back*. Her phone didn’t beep again for over a week.</p><p>Darcy found herself missing the little back and forth messages, and found their absence made her think about the stranger more than usual. Instead of having a quiet knowledge of his presence in the tower, she caught herself wondering about where in the world he was. Was he safe? What was he doing? It rained for 5 straight days in NYC - what was the weather like where he was? Annoyingly, Jane was currently stumped in her research and spent most of her day angrily staring at her whiteboard of calculations and then playing games on her phone. Darcy had never seen someone play games as angrily as Jane could when she was stumped. Darcy was used to working with Jane; flurries of activity followed by periods of angry phone games and wallowing in days old pyjamas. (Thankfully, the days old pyjamas situation had changed a little bit since she moved in with Thor.) Unfortunately for Darcy, she really could have used the distraction  of work to get her mind off the stranger (she probably should find something different to call him). She went online and found the most complicated knitting pattern that she could, which helped for about three hours until she decided she didn’t actually want to knit that complicated thing, and then she was right back where she started. Maybe she should learn a new hobby. The next day, she had made lists of hobbies she could learn which had transitioned without her permission into lists of names that could maybe be his name and places in the world he could be in and jobs he could have that could necessitate leaving at the drop of a hat. She crumpled up the paper and threw it away, stared at her phone, and willed it to beep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>There's a mission. It goes exactly as well as missions normally go.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 4</p><p>James Buchannan ‘Bucky’ Barnes sat on the quinjet and stared at his phone. What was it about this woman who captivated him so entirely? Ever since the day he saw her in the Avengers kitchen, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And he had grown to like their little text exchanges, how she answered in emoji half the time, and seemed to view their interactions as a game. She respected his boundaries while at the same time letting him know that she thought they were his boundaries and not hers. Also, he had run into her at The Cheesemongers Table that one time, so she probably at least had decent taste in cheese. He knew he couldn’t handle any distractions while the mission briefing was going on, but he couldn’t help wishing his phone would buzz with a reply.</p><p>The Avengers landed in wherever they were, Bucky wasn’t really paying attention during the brief, and were met by a ground crew. It seemed that some mad scientist had fired some type of mutating ray into the zoo and now the city was being threatened by rhinos with extra horns and extra large elephants and lions with venomous teeth. Honestly, it felt a little ridiculous to Bucky, but the Avengers dealt with the mess quickly and regrouped to head back.<br/>“Did that feel too easy to anyone else?” Natasha looked as pristine as she had when she got on the quinjet.<br/>“Yeah. I have a bad feeling about this” Bucky replied. “What do we know about the scientist?”<br/>“We haven’t gotten any intel on that individual” Tony replied. “Jarvis hasn’t been able to find anything. I don’t think we are done here yet.”<br/>Natasha and Bucky exchanged a long look.<br/>“OK, here’s what we are going to do” Natasha took charge briskly. “Clint, Bruce, and Steve stick around here and help with cleanup and crowd control. Tony, I need you and Jarvis on support. I need anything you can find. If there’s a whisper, I want to know about it. We need intel. Sam, can you and Thor stick around. I need you available for air support. Bucky and I are going to go gather some intel the old fashioned way. Check-ins every 12 hours, all communication on the secure channel. Clint, backup plan Tango Delta if we need it.” WIth that, she and Bucky loaded up on some extra equipment and went their separate ways. Having a team at his back sure was a pleasant change from his time as the Winter Soldier.</p><p>Two days later, Bucky was getting frustrated. It had been raining non-stop in Santiago since they had arrived (oh yeah, apparently they were in Chile) and no one on the team seemed to be any closer to finding the person responsible for the mutation ray. He was cold and damp, which made his shoulder ache, and he wanted to be home and in the garden where it was warm. He missed Darcy. He was constantly fighting the urge to text her, to ask her if she missed him. He had to stop thinking about her, but rather than making it easier, the separation seemed to make him unable to think about anything but her. He was staring at his phone, reading through their past conversations when his com beeped in his ear. </p><p>“We have a lead on the scientist. Coordinates coming through now. Be at the quinjet in 20”.</p><p>Once everyone had assembled back on the quinjet, Steve started sharing all of the intel that had been gathered. “It looks like some scientist, working independently as far as we can tell, invented or got a hold of some sort of gamma ray. This scientist modified the ray to cause spontaneous mutations. We are headed to their compound in the jungle to attempt to apprehend the scientist. Alive, preferably. Bucky, you and Clint will be on opposite sides of the compound providing intel and dealing with threats. Nat, you and I will go in the front. Tony, Thor, and Sam, air support. Bruce, based on what we know about this technology, we think it might be best for you to wait on the quinjet until the scientist is neutralized. There’s some concern about how that gamma ray might interact with what you already have going on.” The team all nodded in agreement and got ready. It was a good plan. And like all good plans, it fell apart about two minutes after they implemented it.</p><p>The scientist was smart. There was nothing high up for a perch within a half mile of the compound in any direction. All of the land had been completely cleared. There was no way to approach without being seen. Steve and Tony conferred and decided that a full frontal approach was the only option. It went exactly as well as you might expect, and while in the end it was technically a success, no one was happy about it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my first time posting on Ao3. Please let me know what you think? I'm 15K words into this story so I'll try to update regularly.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>